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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24902878">the girls and the deer</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/notjodieyet/pseuds/notjodieyet'>notjodieyet</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>A gift for a friend, F/F, In The Woods, Kissing, Not Beta Read, UNIT era, a bit of literature discussion, established relationship jo/sarah!, hozier recommended, sorry bout that hopefully it's still acceptable, the wlw yearning hits different</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-20 07:28:53</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,990</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24902878</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/notjodieyet/pseuds/notjodieyet</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A birthday fic for a dear, dear friend! Jo gets annoyed by the Doctor's antics and takes a walk. </p>
<p>Aka, somebody's been listening to too much Hozier.</p>
<p>Liberties taken with canon, also known as, I texted canon to meet me in the parking lot at six.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Jo Grant &amp; The Master (Delgado), Jo Grant/Sarah Jane Smith, The Doctor &amp; Jo Grant</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>17</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>the girls and the deer</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/vermontghost/gifts">vermontghost</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Jo sometimes thought that the only bit of <em>Moby Dick</em> she ever liked was the first page, and the rest was good for kindling. She had never quite finished the book, anyway, and had managed to get a passing grade on the class anyway. The Doctor had found that out once and spent three hours reciting <em>Moby Dick</em> to her; that was an experience she never cared to replicate.</p>
<p>All that aside, the reason she liked the very first bit of <em>Moby Dick</em> was simply because she thought about it sometimes. “Whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul… then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.”</p>
<p>Except the “my soul” bit was just the Doctor being snippy, and the sea was the woods five minutes’ walk from UNIT headquarters.</p>
<p>Jo was beginning to think that today was turning out one of those days. The Doctor was bored, and when he was bored, he paced, and when he paced, he noticed things, and those things were always bad and then he got annoyed at Jo for them.</p>
<p>After moving the Doctor’s mug three and a half centimetres to the right and adjusting the handle to be at a ninety degree angle from the side of the table, the third slight mug movement in as many minutes, Jo was longing for the forest.</p>
<p>The Doctor pressed his lips together at Jo’s halfhearted work. “That looks off.”</p>
<p>“You could always move it,” said Jo, who could nearly hear the wind rustling the leaves, the birds chirping above. One time she’d seen a magpie with an almost familiar pocketwatch, although she never told the Doctor about it. The poor man was still looking for that timepiece, which was probably now lining a birds’ nest. What did magpies do with their stolen shiny things, anyway? Give them to lady magpies?</p>
<p>Sarah would like to talk about magpies, Jo thought. She would much rather be talking with Sarah than the Doctor right now.</p>
<p>“Fetch me my communicator,” said the Doctor off-handedly, and Jo only stared at him with narrowed eyes.</p>
<p>“What’s the magic word?” she said, sing-song, placing her hands on her hips.</p>
<p>He fiddled with a bit of ruffle poking out of his sleeve. <em>“He wears those for the motion of them. Just to prod at them and make him feel important. I think he’d wear a necklace too if he owned one but they’ve all fallen down behind the bed-frame,”</em> the Master had said once, and Jo was beginning to think he was right. “Plllllease,” said the Doctor, with more than a little effort.</p>
<p>Jo flicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth and went to get the metal contraption from the back of the TARDIS. “I’m going on a walk!” she shouted.</p>
<p>“What?”</p>
<p>Jo carried the communicator back and put it down on a table. It had wires and cables and twisty things and buttons, all the signifiers of a fancy alien device, and it beeped if you so much as looked at it wrong. One time, Jo could swear she just <em>thought</em> about how ridiculous it looked and it decided to shudder and fall apart right there.</p>
<p>“I’m going on a walk,” she said.</p>
<p>The Doctor hummed tunelessly and went about setting the monstrous device up, with the careful squinting she’d come to expect from his science experiments.</p>
<p>“I said, I’m going on a <em>walk</em>.”</p>
<p>“I heard you. Take your — take Sarah Jane, she’s been buzzing around the building all day. Kiss in the woods or something. I hear that’s all the rage with kids these days.”</p>
<p>Jo frowned. “And who told you that?”</p>
<p>The Doctor smiled impishly at her, leaving her slightly confused and very slightly concerned. “Have fun!”</p>
<hr/>
<p>Jo did indeed find her Sarah Jane “buzzing around,” as it were, although she did seem occupied with checking items off a list pinned to a clipboard. “Good afternoon,” she said. “I think you’re worrying the Doctor.”</p>
<p>“I think I’m worrying everyone,” said Sarah. She ticked something else off with a flourish.</p>
<p>“What’s…” Jo waved at the clipboard.</p>
<p>“Oh, this?” Sarah turned it around, revealing a sheet of paper marked all over with crosses and check marks. Sarah shrugged. “I was bored.”</p>
<p>Jo took the clipboard and examined it. “Did you scare the Brigadier, at least?”</p>
<p>“Made him so nervous he threw me out of his office and forgot why he called me in!” said Sarah, smiling like the sun.</p>
<p>Jo nodded at this, as it sounded like the sort of thing she should be proud of. “I’m off on a walk, if you’d like to come.”</p>
<p>Sarah took her paper and clipboard back and set them down on a nearby chair. “All right.”</p>
<hr/>
<p>The woods were just as cool and welcoming as Jo had hoped, the leaves just as murmury, the birds just as cheerful. It was a welcome respite to the nearly-constant tension and stress of UNIT. <em>Sure</em>, she loved the officers there, but they did get a bit much — Jo had once asked Mike to open a jar for her off-duty and he’d saluted after for no apparent reason. Not to mention whatever the Doctor had going on at any given time; he was always either saving the world or working on some fantastic project, and he never had much time or interest for anything else anyway.</p>
<p>Not Sarah, though. Sarah was…</p>
<p>Sarah had always been Goldilocks perfect. <em>Just right.</em></p>
<p>She grabbed Jo’s hand, and Jo felt a rush of blood to her head. “I want to show you something,” she said. “Follow me.”</p>
<p>Jo followed her, like a willing duckling after a very pretty brunette, over a little stream and through the woods and for ages across fallen leaves and acorns crunched under her feet. She was reminded of another book she’d read, this one because of the Master: <em>Over hill, over dale.</em></p>
<p>(<em>“What does dale mean?”</em> she’d asked, looking up from her Shakespeare.</p>
<p>The Master had pushed his reading glasses up his nose and hummed a fragment of that same tune the Doctor so favoured while he worked. “<em>Ah… valley, dear.”</em>)</p>
<p>(Jo knew she wasn’t supposed to like him, not at all. He was a villain, for God’s sake, and a fairly competent one at that. It was just that he never made her feel dull for not knowing things. On the contrary, he made her feel ever so smart for thinking to ask.)</p>
<p>(She thought that maybe if the Doctor was allowed to love him, she could allow herself to too. It was only fair.)</p>
<p>Sarah tugged her between two trees, and all of a sudden, as if a curtain was being pulled back, a clearing came into view.</p>
<p>It was possibly the most beautiful place Jo had ever seen, although now she’d laid eyes on it <em>beautiful</em> sounded like a far too weak word. Golden sunlight streamed through the gaps in the leaves, sprinkling itself over the ground and casting everything in a rich light, as if they were inside a grand castle instead of the middle of the forest. A log, half-covered in thick moss, lay on the edge of the clearing like a lady just retired for a quick nap, and large rocks were scattered on the ground.</p>
<p>There was a feeling about this place like it was the oldest thing Jo had ever seen, although she knew that was probably wrong. It felt like the fae had just stepped out to get a drink, collectively, and they’d be back home in just a few minutes. It felt like a fairy tale. It felt like distilled magic, painted into every corner and on every surface.</p>
<p>“Do you like it?” said Sarah.</p>
<p>Jo squeezed her hand. Her opinion on the place seemed unneeded. She was but a brief woman on this planet, and the clearing was an otherworldly goddess. “It’s all right,” she said uselessly, as if sarcasm could make her interesting or something.</p>
<p>“Oh.”</p>
<p>“No, no, I was — I was just —! It’s wonderful. I love it.”</p>
<p>Sarah seemed happy at this, at the very least, and she led Jo over to that mossy log. Jo was loathe to touch it, let alone sit down, but Sarah gestured for her to.</p>
<p>“The moss must be so old,” said Jo. “I couldn’t disturb it.”</p>
<p>Sarah pointed at the bit of log that was plain wood. “Sit over there. I’ll sit on the ground.”</p>
<p>Jo complied, and Sarah knelt at her feet. She felt a bit like a maiden being courted by a very beautiful knight, which wasn’t an awful feeling whatsoever. Sarah clasped both of Jo’s hands, and they giggled together in the vague awkwardness. “Lady Smith,” said Jo, with a mockingly posh voice.</p>
<p>“Lady Grant,” said Sarah in a similar tone, and they both devolved into giggling again. “I have come to gift you this…” Her eyes darted around, and she plucked a forget-me-not from the ground. “Flower. To ask for your hand.”</p>
<p>“In marriage?”</p>
<p>“I guess?”</p>
<p>“Or to look at? Are you chopping off my hand?”</p>
<p>Sarah laughed. “Foiled again.”</p>
<p>Jo leaned down and pressed her lips to Sarah’s forehead. “Nevertheless, I accept your offer, Lady Smith.”</p>
<p>“Many thanks, my beloved Lady Grant. I…”</p>
<p>Jo leaned down and kissed her on the mouth. She tasted like apple juice and caramel and quite possibly paper napkins, which Jo used to nibble on when she was younger. “You didn’t bring me out here just to charm me, did you?” Their foreheads were touching, their breaths mingling, Sarah’s head tilted up towards Jo. Their lips were still impossibly close, brushing together as Sarah spoke.</p>
<p>“I very well might have.”</p>
<p>Sarah kissed her again, soft and almost worshipful in the way her hands slipped out of Jo’s loose grasp and fluttered up her back. There was something so quietly holy about this, something so perfect and gentle.</p>
<p>When Jo finally ran out of breath, she pulled back, gasping in air. Sarah’s eyes were unreadable, except for the layers of longing and love that were so clearly written across her face. Jo felt unbelievably content. <em>At peace.</em></p>
<p>Sarah’s lips parted to say something, although she seemed to think better of it and instead flicked her eyes to the space directly behind Jo and moved ever so slightly away, as if giving Jo space to turn around. She did, cautiously, although she was foolishly sure nothing could hurt here. Not here. Not when she was with Sarah.</p>
<p>A deer stood there. No, a stag, with antlers so huge and gorgeous he must have been six or seven years old — Jo didn’t think to count the nubs. She didn’t really think at all, just stared and gaped at the magnificent creature that had graced them with his presence.</p>
<p>They stared at each other, the girls and the deer, in the depths of the trees and shadows and sunlight.</p>
<p>He dipped his head to them, and for a moment Jo thought that he was going to charge and destroy both of them and that perfect moment. But instead, he galloped into the woods, disappearing in the thick of the trees and the underbrush.</p>
<p>Jo and Sarah glanced at each other, and they both raised their eyebrows in sync.</p>
<p>“Oh my <em>God</em>,” said Jo.</p>
<p>“It was so —”</p>
<p>“I thought we’d scared it!”</p>
<p>“Its <em>eyes</em>!”</p>
<p>“Oh my God, its eyes…”</p>
<p>“We should have brought a camera.”</p>
<p>Jo was privately convinced that it would never have appeared on the pictures, like some kind of supernatural vampire, although she was afraid that would be silly to say aloud. All of it was seeming just a bit silly now, fading into the background fuzz of memories and everyday life.</p>
<p>“I suppose we should be heading back,” said Jo.</p>
<p>“I suppose,” said Sarah.</p>
<p>They kissed for ages instead, until minutes bled into each other and time became blurry beyond recognition, and they kept kissing afterwards too.</p>
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